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Beyond Regionalism?
Regional cooperation, regionalism and regionalization in the Middle East are usually considered to be weak and rather ceremonial. However, since September 11, 2001, a new regional order is emerging and the impact of geostrategic changes in the international environment has yet to be satisfactorily studied. With older regional organizations suffering from weaknesses, new forms appear to be developing and flourishing, due either to European support or growing sub-regional identities. This volume offers refined theoretical models and approaches which are attuned to the new dynamics and contradictions of a wide range of regionalist projects in the contemporary Middle East. Case studies of the most important regional organizations in different policy fields offer comprehensive overviews of the main actors, institutions, historical development and current issues.
Renegotiating Gender and the State in Tunisia between 2011 and 2014
Anna Antonakis’ analysis of the Tunisian transformation process (2011-2014) displays how negotiations of gender initiating new political orders do not only happen in legal and political institutions but also in media representations and on a daily basis in the family and public space. While conventionalized as a “model for the region”, this book outlines how the Tunisian transformation missed to address social inequalities and local marginalization as much as substantial challenges of a secular but conservative gender order inscribed in a Western hegemonic concept of modernity. She introduces the concept of “dissembled secularism” to explain major conflict lines in the public sphere and the exploitation of gender politics in a context of post-colonial dependencies.
Transitional Justice in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia (2011–2013)
Domenica Preysing offers a critical reading of “transitional justice” that focuses on political dynamics in post-revolutionary Tunisia, from the ouster of president Ben Ali in January 2011 until the adoption of transitional justice bill in December 2013. She explores the role, structure and characteristics of evolving transitional justice policy discourse to provide a better understanding of how, by who, and to what effect the policy label “transitional justice” is progressively filled with meaning. She shows that conflicting interpretations of both the past and the present have been both deeply embedded in and an expression of the dynamic context of domestic political transformation, as old and new elites struggle over the political identity and direction of post-Ben Ali Tunisia.
Constructivist Niche Diplomacy
Nicolas Fromm explores norm-based strategies small states can use to distinguish themselves internationally in order to compensate for their lesser geopolitical weight. Using the example of Qatar, the author shows that such strategies might include a sort of norm entrepreneurship which goes beyond the advocacy of universal norms and implies the development of genuinely new norms (‘norm crafting’) in pursuit of regional political influence. To shed light on the stunning rise of Qatar from a background actor to a protagonist in international diplomacy, the case study analyses the distinctive use of norm crafting in the country’s Middle East diplomacy under the reign of Emir Hamad (1995-2013). To unfold the potential of strategic normative innovation, Qatar seems to have imitated the attitudes and attributes of established norm entrepreneurs such as international organizations.
Economic Liberalization and Authoritarianism
Contrary to other world regions, political regimes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remain largely authoritarian. While the search for explanations is still ongoing, Christian Neugebauer draws attention to a hitherto underresearched factor: economic liberalization. Being part of a global shift from state-led development towards structural adjustment in the economy, these policies also deeply affected the countries of the MENA region. This makes the resilience of authoritarianism in the region all the more puzzling, as a large part of the scientific community expected economic liberalization to undermine authoritarian regimes. Neugebauer strives to solve the puzzle with a comparative case study that covers four countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and Morocco) and their political regimes, from independence in the 1950s to the Arab Spring in 2011. He shows that two specific policies of economic liberalization might in fact have been relevant for regime stability: consumer-price liberalization and privatization.
Factionalism in Social Movements
This research unpacks the reasons of the Muslim Brotherhood’s factionalism post-2013 and defines the scope of disagreements within the group, by applying an interactionist approach to factionalism. This approach analyzes the interplay between the macro-, meso-, and micro- dimensions. The research re-constructs the narrative of Muslim Brotherhood's factionalism post-2013, and includes the implicit micro-structural dimensions of the factional process, thereby proposing a more comprehensive narrative to the conflict.
The Muslim Brotherhood and its Quest for Hegemony in Egypt
Annette Ranko analyses the Muslim Brotherhood’s challenging of the Mubarak regime and the ensuing struggle between the two from 1981 to 2011. She furthermore traces how the group evolved throughout the process of that struggle. She studies how the Brotherhood’s portrayal of itself as an attractive alternative to the regime provoked the Mubarak regime to level anti-Brotherhood propaganda in the state-run media in order to contain the group’s appeal amongst the public. The author shows how the regime’s portrayal of the Brotherhood and the Brotherhood’s engagement with it have evolved over time, and how this ideational interplay has combined with structural institutional aspects in shaping the group’s behaviour and ideology.
The Will of Change
In this book, Eva-Maria Maggi argues that the European Union (EU) had an impact on institutional reform processes in North Africa in cases where major domestic actors agreed. She analyzes how political actors in Morocco used EU neighborhood policies to shape economic and environmental policy between 1995 and 2008. Maggi argues that it was not the design of the EU‘s neighborhood policies but rather the will of change of domestic actors in Morocco that determined the pace, direction of reform and the extent to which the EU continues to play a role in them. While Moroccan politics were indeed “europeanized” Maggi highlights the role of domestic actors who so effectively managed to put forth their own policy priorities and essentially “morocconized” the ENP.
Gender Politics in Transition
Eva Schmidt analyses how power relations, ideas, and institutions in Tunisian gender politics changed during the democratisation process 2011–2014. Her analysis of gender politics offers a productive lens to understand the course of the Tunisian transition. As gender policies are integral to Tunisian national identity, they became a major battlefield in the fight for political inclusion and exclusion. In this context, liberal and leftist feminists accessed the decision-making institutions and enhanced the existing women’s rights legislation. Yet the intertwinement of modernist nationalism with women’s rights also limited the scope for feminist demands. This book contributes a unique case study to political transitology and advances an original theoretical approach based on Bourdieu’s theory of the political field.
Martyr Cults and Political Identities in Lebanon
Sabrina Bonsen sheds light on political cults of martyrs in Lebanon and reconsiders the context of their emergence, development and distinct characteristics since 1920. She examines how the honouring of martyrs became an established practice in Lebanese politics and is crucial to grasp the logic of violence and conflict. Drawing on the case of the Amal movement, the author analyses central narratives to the group’s discourse and practices concerning martyrdom to show how identity construction and strategies of legitimizing power are intertwined. Moreover, the book provides insides into political competition strategies, especially in regards to the two major Shiʿite political actors, Amal and Hizbullah, and takes a new look on martyrdom by going beyond cultural-religious explanations.
